Flashbacks were half the game, and you “met” Sephiroth several times as well.
Frankly, any main villain who works in the background isn’t worth his salt in an RPG. Ultimecia is a case in point - she was an awful main villain. But at least she was the final battle as well, which Hojo wasn’t.
Sephiroth is the final guy you fight. He is trying to cause the end of the world, he is responsible for killing Aeris. He is the one you are chasing throughout the game. Hojo has a few scenes here and there, but is not the antagonist to the protagonist.
Cidolfas: I’m not saying Sephiroth’s not a threat. I see him more as the “villian used by the main villian” sort of figure in FF7, Though he became the “puppetmaster” during Advent Children.
theWallflower: But Hojo was the man who made Sephiroth who he is. Hojo was man who intended the actions of FF7 to occur. Hojo WANTED to destory the world to achieve his own ambitions. But, in the end, Hojo’s nothing more than a pebble that starts a rockslide.
One could argue that Gestahl made Kefka who he is, but that doesn’t make him the main villain of the game.
I don’t see how hojo could possibly be the main villain of FFVII. First off, while he is evil, he does not desire to end the world. He does not desire to wipe humanity off the planet. This is Sephy’s ‘I’m a superior race.’ schitck. Hojo had nothing to do with finding the temple of the ancients, of obtaining the blacjk materia, or using it for meteor. Hojo’s plot and motivation is to continue his experiments and to observe. He doesn’t care too much about his own status so much as being able to see the fruits of his labor. He helps both the protagonists and sephiroth for this purpose at times. He wants to see what’ll happen with the reunion, to see if sephiroth is actually capable of harnessinhg the planet’s energy. If anything, Hojo is more of a puppet of sephiroth.
Could be advertisement too, if you believe a circulating LJ-icon. 
Cidfolas: Actually I would compare Hojo to Kefka in that charatcer element.
Pink Lugia: Hojo did have a personal goal in Sephiroth destorying the world, though that is tied to the events of Dirge of Cerberus. While it true Hojo only observed and such, he also fueled to see his work through even if it meant everyone else dies.
Comparing Hojo to Kefka makes no sense at all. I don’t think you’re actually listening to what people are saying.
Not like any of this really matters, since no one is ever going to accept someone who’s not the final boss as the main villain in any case. The only possible exception is Necron, who never shows his face until the last five minutes and is more of a mandatory bonus battle.
Saying Hojo is the primary villain of FF is like saying Emperor Palpatine is the primary antagonist in Star Wars instead of Darth Vader, or Hannibal Lecter is the lead bad guy in Silence of the Lambs, instead of Buffalo Bill. Why not say Rufus Shinra was the lead bad guy? He commissioned the creation of Sephiroth. Why not say President Shinra is the villain in Dirge of Cerberus? He’s the one who created Deep Ground.
theWallflower: I would with Palpatine. Though Shinra who commisioned the projects that created Sephiroth & the DGS project, it was only to make money off of them. But though Shinra was trouble, they knew that there’s no profit to be made if the world’s destoryed.
Cidolfas: I am, the only difference is that Kefka suceeded in his plan while Hojo was at a inch of success, only for something unexpected to ruin it for him.
Fractyl, you have prooved my point with your own comment. True, hojo would follow his experiments and observe, even if it meant the end of the world, but he did not strive for that end. The world ending isn’t his goal. That is Sephiroth’s goal. Hojo is merely an accesory in it all, not the one actually trying to create the destruction, therefore, he couldn’t be the main villain. Honestly, if anyone other than Seph could be considered the main villain, that would probably be jenova, who sort’ve uses Seph as an avatar of her/it’s will. This is also further examined in AC with more jenova pawns and such. but that’s going a bit far out, cause the game doesn’t really give you actual access tio this jenova entity, only sephiroth.
Also, the reason your comparison of Hojo to kefka fails is because kefka is a much better comparison to Sephiroth, and Hojo to Gestahl. and Gestahl isn’t the main villain in that scenario.
:victoly:
The problem is that your definition of “main villain” doesn’t gel with everyone else’s. The main villain is not the guy behind most of the bad things that happen in the game. Nor is he the guy who has the evillest plans. The main villain is the one that gets the most screentime, who antagonizes the heroes the most, who generally has the badass final castle, and who is almost always the final fight in the game.
Admittedly Ultimecia only meets two of those criteria, but she was technically behind everything Edea did as well, so arguably all four apply to her.
pink_lugia: Actually, after the evfent 5 years ago, the lines that separate Sephiroth & Jenova. As the FF7 Ultimania revealed, Sephiroth assimulated with Jenova’s head while within the North Cave. In many ways, Sephiroth is a “evolved Jenova”, possessing a conscious mind while relying on basic instincts. In fact the “Sephiroth” seen were actually pieces of Jenova modeled in Sephiroth’s image. I can agree that Sephiroth is the villian of the story, but was still a pawn in Hojo’s scheme in FF7.
I’ve spoken with one of the translators of DoC, who said he was under the impression (as I was) that the “Sephiroths” Cloud met were “Sephiroth Clones” whose appearances were altered to that of Sephiroth. Although Ultimania is published by Square, I’m not entirely convinced that every background piece of information mentioned there is necessarily canon (especially given that there are more than one Ultimania guide associated with FF7).
Cidolfas: well, the “Sephiroth Copies”(Advent Children retranslated FF7 moments on a special recap) were only infused with Jenova’s Cells. No actual facial changes occur, though I can think they would have Sephiroth’s eyes. Plus, the FF7 Ultimania Omega is pretty much only Ultmania book with all FF7-related info as I am checking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimania
OT:FF12’s Ultimania is divided in two books: The “Battle Ultimania”(Combat system, monsters, leveling) and Scenario Ultimania(Storyline, characters, plot-devices). Both include interviews, a collection of artworks and illustrations, and a side-story by Benny Matsuyama (FF7: Maiden who Travels the Planet).
The idea was that Sephiroth was controlling them, and “disguised” them to look like him. It’s not any more ridiculous than the idea that little chunks of Jenova could wander around and disguise themselves to look like Sephiroth. And it does explain how Jenova was broken out of her tank in Shinra HQ (why did she wait so long if she broke out herself?) and why all the Sephiroths Cloud meets are headed for the Northern Crater. (Isn’t it odd that you don’t see any Sephiroth Clones except at Nibelheim and the Northern Crater? Why aren’t there any in between? If Cloud continually meets them, it’d make more sense.)
I seem to recall there being an Ultimania that was published about FF7AC, including a side story with Denzel. In any case, though, the story info in Ultimania obviously doesn’t go through the sort of rigorous process that it would do in a finished game (it’s a lot easier to write text than it is to animate it, and I think the script is generally set in stone before scenes are animated, barring unforeseen circumstances). Neither is it always written by the same scenario writers and directors as the original games. Which isn’t to say it’s worth nothing, but I’m not entirely comfortable with including information from it. For one thing, none of them were ever officially translated into English, so I’m relying on someone else’s translation for accuracy.
Cidolfas: That’s easy to answer, Sephiroth projected his will into Jenova’s headless body. Because he fully intergrated with Jenova’s head, Sephiroth could easily control the rest of Jenova and interfilrate the minds of those with its cells in their bodies.
But Sephiroth never actually controlled the copies(as their minds were beyond use), or Cloud, more like he took Jenova’s body so they could follow. Like lambs to the slaughter, they were killed so that Jenova’s cells can leave them and fuse with Jenova & Sephiroth. As Hojo stated, he originally thought that the copies would migrate to Midgar, but Sephiroth changed the location to suit his plan. After Meteor was summoned, Sephiroth began to absorb more of Jenova, entering the pupa-stage called “Bizzaro-Sephiroth”.
Well, I had provided you accurate translations. But if you still relucant, you can always E-Mail the one who wrote it.
You’re just agreeing with me - Sephiroth would need a body to control (or “infiltrate”); he can’t just manipulate chunks of DNA to appear like full humans.
There are plenty of questions on both sides, so I’m going to stick with the explanation I got straight from the horse’s mouth.
Again, accuracy is in the mind of the person translating. I have absolutely no way of confirming that the translation is accurate. The guy can tell me all he wants that he’s being accurate, but I can’t confirm it.
I agree, if square wanted Hojo to be the main villain they would have had to beat him as the end boss instead of before. I’m sure Hojo deserves some credit for being a good villain, but like Cidolfas said- noone would except it.
I think the reason people pushed Sephy up to much is because he was A) The main villain of a highly loved Final Fantasy, and B) He’s Cloud’s rival. Comon people think Cloud is so awesome why wouldn’t they think his, basically clone, would be awesome. Though Cloud didn’t get as many cool appearances as Seph (I did like him in KH1 though).